Green Flash

I was up with plenty of time to spare Friday morning. Like usual, I exercised, walked Ykraps, and played on the PC prior to meditation and running. I woke Mindy while delivering her coffee come 6:30am. She needed to be up for her annual summer retreat. In fact, this was going to look an awful lot like a regular school day. The kids and Mindy would be departing the house by 7:30am.

I left for my run shortly after waking Mindy. I ran four miles on what was a lovely summer morning. My legs felt terrific again today. This by far has been the best they’ve felt in months. Mindy had eggs on the stove by the time I made it back to the house. I didn’t need to pack a lunch, either since I still had Thursday’s setting in the fridge at work. Mindy and the kids shoved off on schedule, but not before Jacob did his share of bellyaching. Getting up early didn’t come easy. Mindy viewed this as a dry run for the first day of school, which is only a smidge more than three weeks away for Jacob. Didn’t go so well.

I had the house to myself after 7:30am. It was nice. I took my time with a shower and my ultimate departure. The weather was ideal. I drove the Trooper since I knew that I needed to make a Home Depot stop for some drywall repair supplies. The work day moved swiftly. We were busy. I took a lunch break around 1:30pm. I made two stops: the bank and Home Depot. I got the stuff necessary to patch Gloria’s lower level ceiling. And incidentally, the afternoon sun was quite toasty. Also, while out, I placed call to Tom C., who left me a message last evening. We made tentative plans to golf Sunday AM and to meet at Barley’s later this night. I was back at work by 2:30pm.

The afternoon moved as fast as the morning. I left for home around 5:15pm. I took I-270S to I-70E and again got off at Wilson Rd. That worked well. I guess that I startled Mindy when I got home – not sure why. It was 5:35pm. The kids had already left with Jimaken but would be home mid-day Saturday instead of the usual Sunday. Mindy & I walked Ykraps together. We were back a little after 6pm. After dilly-dallying around for a few minutes, I finally settled into the recliner for a much needed nap. Mindy later stated that I slept no more than 5-10 minutes but it felt like a whole lot more. I woke feeling quite refreshed. Mindy talked with her friend Leiyah about the possibility of joining us at Barley’s later.

We were ready to depart for Barley’s by 7:20pm. We drove the Trooper. The place was quite crowded throughout. Lots of regulars were present and accounted for. It was good to see them. I was happy to see that they still had a few guest IPA’s left over from IPA-Looza as well as their own Centennial IPA. That’s what I drank. Mindy bravely ordered a Dragon’s Milk. She ordered sauerkraut balls, too. I eventually had one or two, but wasn’t all that hungry. As the night wore on, Tom C, brother Tommy, and Leiyah eventually arrived. We were also joined by our neighbors, Pat & Lisa. I thought that Rene was coming too, but she never showed.

After a couple of Centennial’s, Beth urged me to try a Green Flash, a guest bottled IPA. It was exceptional. I ended up drinking two. We hung at Barley’s until just before 11pm. Mindy drove home. At home, I was still wide awake. I opened a raspberry ale and headed for the neighbors’ hoping they’d be out on their deck. Mindy went on to bed. Turns out, the neighbor’s weren’t up. I sat on our own deck for a few and then checked baseball scores before heading up to bed myself.